Routine versus a Rut

Part 3 of “Knowing” how to sell is not enough

Our journey to eliminate the gap between what we know we should do and actually doing it continues.

We touched briefly on the five most common causes of the knowing-doing gap.  To read it, go to Knowing how to sell is not enough

Then we dug deep into the #1 cause of the Knowing-Doing Gap:  Talking too much.  Today, we will deal with cause #2:  your routine that turns into a rut.

Every person and I mean every person I meet is too busy.  They are challenged to be everything to everybody and challenged to get more done with less time or resources.  Too busy to even think, let alone plan.  Emails, meetings, emergency customer problems, conference calls…….

To combat this, we develop efficient ways to manage our time.  We develop opinions or a bias which drives our actions.  To become proficient at these actions, we perform these actions repeatedly until we no longer even have to “think” about them.  It’s a habit, routine or ritual.  Initially, this is great.  The routine helps us get more done and make our busy lives manageable.  However, over time, the routine is embedded so deep that it becomes a rut.

See if any of these sound like you or someone you know.

“I have Monday customers, Tuesday customers, ….  I go see these customers every Tuesday”

“I never call on prospects around the holiday, during harvest, planting, when it snows, rains, on a Monday, on Fridays…..”

“I treat all my customers the same, no matter how big or small”

Initially, these opinions or guidelines help us organize our busy schedule.  We don’t have to spend time thinking about where to go on Monday.  I go to customer X on Monday.  It’s harvest, I can’t call on customers now.  This routine thinking helped us at the beginning of our sales career.  In agribusiness selling, we work from home and cover a large geography.  We start out driving all over the countryside with no system or plan to manage our windshield time.  Then we get smart and develop a routine.  But look out, because that routine over time turns into a deep rut.  The rut prevents us from doing what we know we should do.

On Sunday night, instead of planning the best use of our time for the week ahead, we opt to just do what we always do every Monday, Tuesday, etc.  We hit the easy button.  After all, there’s really good TV on Sunday night.  That’s so much easier than pulling out our customer or prospect list, prioritizing them and then scheduling our actions to focus on getting the most results.  Since we treat all customers the same, it’s easy to schedule a big geography.  “I’m heading to Johnson County tomorrow.  So, I’ll call on every customer in that county.”

5 strategies to get traction and escape the rut:

1. Comfort zone – Fear of change – After building a territory, we get into the comfortable routine of going to our favorite customers. It’s comfortable and we are accepted there.  Prospecting falls to the side as we focus on taking care of our customers.  Time passes and we get rusty with our prospecting skills.    Step one of escaping this rut is to recognize it.  Then gradually add in the actions you know you need to take.  In this common example, we know we need to prospect.  This is often one of the least favorite parts of the selling process and many will procrastinate cold calling.  If so, add one or two cold calls in between a couple customer calls.  You can build your confidence back up with customers in between cold calls.
2. Start small – One of the positive outcomes of routine is knowing the outcome. Doing something new has a risk.  We don’t know the outcome.  It might be a complete disaster or a waste of time.  Sticking on the tried and true path is safe.  If you are using this excuse to not do what you should be doing, then start small.  Building good habits takes time.  If you haven’t cold called in months or years, don’t start your plan by announcing you are going to call on 10 prospects a week.
3. Test Market Concept: If you are worried that your new actions could impact your sales or your current customers negatively, then select a small test market area and try it there first.
4. Prioritize: “I don’t have time.” We all get 24 hours a day and we do what we prioritize.  You know you need to do a better job of pre-call planning.  “But I don’t have time!” Yes, you do.  You just don’t think it’s important enough to take the time.  Quit “winging it” and schedule pre-call planning on your calendar.
5. Check Yourself: Develop a system that routinely challenges your beliefs, principles, and routine.  Ask your peers, sales manager, associations, and even your customers for help.  Like spring cleaning or moving the furniture around once in a while, you need to look at your schedule and change things up.  Challenge your belief that you “have” to attend that trade show every year, that you “have” to run that promotion every month, that you “have” to call on that customer every Monday.

I’ll leave you with one final story on this topic.  A salesman near my territory was retiring after 35 years in sales and I was taking over some of his accounts.  Prior to leaving, he briefed me on how I was going to take care of his customers by calling on them weekly.  Many of these accounts were small and would have taken a considerable amount of time away from my larger accounts.  Not wanting to be a complete jerk and tell him that wasn’t going to happen, I checked myself.  Talking with my sales manager, I asked, “What happens if I stop calling on them and they quit?”  His reply, “What happens if you call on them and they stay?”  Ok, that wasn’t exactly what he said, but it was words to that effect.

Please join me next time as we discuss Cause #3 & 4.  We’ll dig deeper into each area and give a fresh look at an age-old problem of knowing but not doing!

Cause #3:  Fear.

Cause #4:  Ineffective Measuring.

Cause #5:  Misplaced competition.

If you found this to be helpful, forward on to someone you know who might also appreciate it.

For more Ag Sales Training, Ag Sales Coaching and Leading Ag Sales Teams, go to http://www.GregMartinelli.net/